Senate candidate Geoff Diehl aligns himself with Trump and against Elizabeth Warren

Joe DiFazio The Patriot Ledger jldifazio

Wednesday

Aug 8, 2018 at 2:09 PMAug 8, 2018 at 2:16 PM

HANOVER — Republican State Rep. Geoff Diehl of Whitman allied himself with the policies of President Donald Trump and blasted Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a meet and greet Wednesday.

Diehl is running for U.S. Senate and was endorsed by the Massachusetts Republican Party in their convention earlier this year. He faces fellow Republicans Beth Lindstrom and John Kingston in the Sept. 4 primary. The winner will then take on Democrat Sen. Warren in the Nov. 6 mid-term.

“In 2016, it’s probably not a big surprise, but I was the only Republican in the state to support Trump when he ran, and believe me I’ve paid for it every day waking up and not knowing what the tweet was going to be that I had to answer for,” Diehl said. “But, his message to me was trying turn around the economy, trying to put American interests first.”

Diehl helped run Trump’s presidential campaign in Massachusetts and said that he had been trying to do some of the same things as the President on Beacon Hill. Diehl held up last year’s tax bill and recent tariffs as accomplishments of the Trump White House.

Diehl, a former sign company executive, also touted a pro-business platform in front of the South Shore and Hanover Chambers of Commerce at the event in the Hanover Mall.

“One of the things we’ve been trying to do is make Beacon Hill more accountable to where your money is being spent and that’s something that’s been a theme for me since I first got started,” Diehl said.

Diehl talked about his leadership in a successful ballot question that repealed automatic gas tax increases pegged to inflation in 2014 and his opposition to the Olympics in Boston.

The senatorial hopeful also decried Warren’s support for raising taxes for top earners and single payer healthcare.

“Elizabeth Warren has no intention down in Washington of working with either side. She just seems focused, at this point, on making a run for White House in 2020,” Diehl said.

The South Shore Chamber also held a July meet and greet with Lindstrom, a former member of Governor Mitt Romney’s cabinet.

“[These events] serve two purposes, one is the obvious in that it gives our members a chance to meet candidates if they want and ask questions about their business,” said Peter Forman, President and CEO of the South Shore Chamber of Commerce. “The one that is less obvious with these is it gives us a chance to bring candidates down to learn about the South Shore … and talk about some of the issues we’re interested in.”

Forman said his organization reached out to Kingston, but has not yet confirmed an event with him.